How Online Hate Exposes the Need for the Forward Party
How my recent experiences online expose the dysfunctional duopoly in full force, strengthening the case for the Forward Party.
I recently put out a tweet denouncing the online hate that former Presidential candidate and founder of the Forward Party, Andrew Yang constantly receives. Just quickly, for those who may not be too familiar with Yang, his signature proposal during his 2020 Presidential campaign was Universal Basic Income, and he upset all the odds, lasting longer in the campaign than many sitting US Senators, including current Vice President Kamala Harris.
For the record, here is the supposedly ‘controversial’ tweet, that’s been seen by over fifty thousand people.
Seems relatively harmless right?
Not according to thousands on Twitter. This Tweet triggered a barrage of hateful comments aimed at myself, Yang, and the Forward Party. I was called a traitor to the US and democracy, an idiot, a fascist/ Nazi defender among countless other things. This is all frankly absurd. Take a stand against online hate, and be called a Nazi. Take a scroll through the comments if you so dare. This is the state of the online political discourse in the US.
Here is one of the most outrageous comments.
Here are some more interesting comments. I decided not to include some of the more hateful ones to avoid platforming some of these people and their hate. Nonetheless, I felt like it was necessary to share some to demonstrate what I mean.
It is important to consider that a large majority of people (if not all of them) saying this type of thing are just online trolls. This is nothing new. For years now people have enjoyed spending their limited time spreading hate online. This is just what they do.
But not all of these comments just came from trolls or bots. By looking at the profiles of these people, I can see they are real people. Many of which are Democrats, who proudly have on their profiles ‘VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO’ and ‘BLUE WAVE 2022’. Being left-wing myself, I was surprised to see that the vast majority of hate I was receiving was from Democrats, not Republicans, which the left is forced to think of as the enemy. Time and time again I was told that I am helping the Forward Party syphon votes from the democrats as part of a plan to help republicans in 2024 in my role as a secret paid operative (despite the fact that the Forward Party has no plan to run a Presidential candidate in 2024).
I just don’t see it this way though. Firstly, people should be able to vote for who they want, as former Green Party Presidential Candidate Howie Hawkins (who I’ve been lucky enough to interview in the past) explained during his campaign. People shouldn’t vote for someone solely out of fear. Fearmongering is hardly a healthy basis for a flourishing democracy. Secondly, the Forward Party is focused on disrupting the dysfunctional democracy. You have MAGA Republicans claiming the last election was stolen, and then you have Democrats who consistently fail to deliver on their promises but keep telling the American people that they deserve to hold onto power because they aren't as bad as the Republicans. Only 10% of Americans are optimistic of how things are going in the country. This highlights the need for change.
But millions of Americans, and all these spewing hate and misinformation online fail to see how the duopoly is the problem, not their fellow Americans (or at least he vast majority of them). For example, when President Obama was running in 2008, he said codifying Roe v Wade into law would be the first thing he would do as President. He did not keep his promise. Now millions of women in America have lost the right to control their bodies. I do not bring this up to protect Republicans (and no, I certainly am not one), but just to show how saying establishment Democrats are the answer to all our problems is rather backward.
I don’t really want to focus on policy issues though. I wanted to comment on the hate I was receiving for denouncing online hate. I think the duopoly has a big part to play in this. It creates fear and leads to people attacking those who are trying to challenge to status quo and make things better (like Yang), so things like the overturning of Roe don’t happen.
One of the key tenets of the Forward Party is ‘Grace and Tolerance’. This may seem somewhat pointless, but the magnitude of hateful comments I’ve received exposes the crucial need for a focus on this. When Democrats, the supposed ‘good guys’ are hurling ‘fascist’ and ‘Nazi’ around like no tomorrow, it only emphasises how important grace, tolerance and common decency are. I believe that most people just want their lives to be better but have different beliefs around what would be most efficient to reach that ever so elusive goal. But the duopoly is making people hateful to and scared of any possible change. These people who think that their hateful comments are successfully putting down the Forward Party are actually strengthening the case for it. Their hate exposes the need for more grace and tolerance.
To summarise, I wanted to do a few different things with this piece. Firstly, I wanted to expose the treatment that people get online for trying to make things better. Secondly, I wanted to expose how there is hate on both sides of the political aisle due to the dysfunctional duopoly and a high level of fearmongering. Finally, I wanted to make the case that this level of hate and inefficient politics strengthens the case for the Forward Party.
People need to calm down. People need to stop throwing around despicable insults. People need to move Forward.
Great article. I had a similar (much more minor) experience. I had expressed my support of the party on a post and someone replied to me claiming it was funded by GOP megadonors. I asked for evidence and the guy cussed me out and blocked me.
Elsewhere on Twitter I have noticed some of the negative backlash against Yang seems to be racially motivated. I have seen that about 10% of responses to his posts are from people making fun of his Chinese name. I look these people up and are shocked to discover they are primarily Democrats. As an independent who has voted solidly blue for my whole life I have been sickened by this discovery. I thought I knew the type of people that voted blue.
The negative response really does show why we need the Forward party.
Wow, those are quite the comments to take in. I've been part of the Forward Party since it was announced, and didn't realize it would get this personal - that we would be putting so much of ourselves on the line for volunteering or being advocates.
You took all of this terribleness amazingly well, and this article is a thorough, rational, and inspiriting defense of why Forward Party and system reform make sense. Glad to be on the same team as you!